Saudi Aramco’s President and Chief Executive Officer Abdalla Jum'ah, in a lecture on Monday at Rice University's James Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas, affirmed that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is one of mutually beneficial interdependence. His address, entitled ‘Saudi Arabia and the United States: Partners in Prosperity - the Energy Dimension’, was the first in the Baker Institute’s Energy Forum Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series. This relationship, he said, “extends beyond oil into multi-dimensional areas of cooperation”.

The Aramco CEO also affirmed that Saudi Arabia can deliver on its pledge to provide more oil, citing the Kingdom's more than 260 billion barrels of reserves, and the prospect of an additional 200 billion barrels through an aggressive exploration program currently under way.